I think what he is referring to by manual recording is time recording. In ADTV, you can set a channel to record at a particular time (not EPG timing, but manually inputting the start and end times) for daily, weekly, etc. recording. Unfortunately this time recording feature is not there in TS.
In all other aspects, recording function, especially series recording is much superior in TS than in ADTV. In ADTV, the series recording setting sometimes deletes itself without warning due to EPG issues. Not in TS.
Also, normally if the STB is able to record a show at the designated time, it will not record the repeats.